HI THERE,
As an Airline Representative myself, i do find the comments made a little worrying.
XS BAGGAGE,
A headache for everyone when someone refuses to pay for it, they do have options of what they can do with the baggage and our particular airline doesnt waiver anything. 2kgs xs, you pay or you dispose of the xs to bring you in the limits.
I allways support the check in agents but as they say. there is a side to every story and sometimes, you do just have to turn a blind eye, it may be an easy way out, but as an airline rep you have to think of the customer service side of things too and try to resolve the situation with maybe a mutual aggreement. For something as stupid as a couple of kgs xs, when you have 101 things going on around you, that is the least of your worries.
More often than not though, if i am called over to deal with xs and pax is angry about it, i will say to the agent in private and say, i will support you in what you are charging as we are not meant to waiver xs but what you do when im gone, is down to you, what i dont know, wont hurt. if we both feel that xs must be charged then i will fully support them and deal with the pax accordingly.
Bags over 32kg, its for health and safety reasons as too many loaders are off sick with bad backs because of heavy bags. if they moan about it, i say, well you try lifting bags over 32kg for 12hrs a day. soon shuts them up. I would nt want to lift heavy bags like that and i dont expect anyone else too either.
Passport issues,
If the airline aggrees to carry them, thats down to them but a spvr must not say yes just for the sake of it. The documents that the pax had may have actually been ok to travel which is why they were ok to go. But i would allways double check on anything your not sure of.If you dont feel happy with the reply from the spvr then maybe ask another experienced agt or spvr. If they say its ok but you still are not happy, then do what your spvr says but make a note of all the details, what was said, who said it andwhat you did etc and keep it safe just incase anything comes back on it.
There is alot of things that we do when we shouldnt but when your on your own and trying to get 800 people through in such a short space of time, we do sometimes turn a blind eye to it we do get into trouble if check is delayed or it is very slow with huge queues and BAA are doing their nut saying, sort it out... NOW. Which does happen on quite a few occasions.
Anyway, thats my bit
Cheers
TJ747